ACUI Open Forum

 View Only
  • 1.  Process/timelines/priorities for reservations

    Posted 04-12-2022 16:44
    Hi all,
    I'm looking for information on how other unions manage reservations in their buildings.  We currently open reservations in April each year for the following academic year and reservations open up to different events/groups based on a tiered system (Tier 1 is major campus events, Tier 2 is departmental student organizations - run by students with dedicated staff advisors, Tier 3 is general student organizations, Tier 4 is departments and Tier 5 is external groups).  Generally, this system works OK but not great.  And it's done in April, which is the last full month of our academic year and incredibly busy!  Our University Center is the primary event location on-campus, with limited other event spaces across campus so demand is very high, particularly for our 2 ballrooms.

    Can you share how you manage reservations for future years for your facility?  What are the pros and cons?  How do you maintain some room availability for student organizations who don't tend to plan much in advance as campus departments?

    Thanks in advance for your help!  

    Stephanie

    ------------------------------
    Stephanie Box
    Director, University Center
    Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi
    Corpus Christi TX
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Process/timelines/priorities for reservations

    Posted 04-12-2022 18:26
    Stephanie

    Thanks for asking for this information! I'd also be really interested to see how other buildings manage this. I especially think it's interesting to know if yall are required to generate revenue (auxiliary) or not. That might really dictate how you allocate space/time.
    Thanks!

    ------------------------------
    Molly Ward
    Director of the Shepherd Union
    Weber State University
    Ogden UT
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: Process/timelines/priorities for reservations

    Posted 04-13-2022 09:01

    Hi Stephanie,

     

    We oversee two event spaces in our main campus student center, a third standalone facility on our south campus, and we schedule our quad (in addition to all non-academic scheduling of registrar spaces).  These spaces, plus the university chapel are the primary event spaces on campus.  There are a couple other but they are scheduled by the school/college within which they're located.

     

    We have a three tiered scheduling priority.  1st priority goes to major university functions such as Homecoming, Family Weekend, Chancellor Initiatives and other large scale programs.  2nd priority goes to registered student organization events.  Everything else comes after that.  We don't directly book outside clients, anything coming on to campus needs to have an on campus sponsorship separate from out office.

     

    Our fall semester university functions are based on the football schedule and we don't have any annual spring events of that nature that we host. For scheduling student org events we have a Space Allocation process that coincides with our student government's funding process. We collaborate with the chapel on this to give the students a single process. This happen semesterly, usually wrapping up before Thanksgiving in the Fall, and by May in Spring.  Once our Student Association announces funding decisions, any event that is funded goes through Space Allocation.  Each group has to apply for their preferred dates and provide alternate choices (because most don't look at our calendar to know when homecoming or easter is).  After we sort through that, looking at culturally significant dates, organizationally significant dates, as well as additional needs such as rehearsals or extended set up times for outside production vendors, we confirm the dates for all the orgs that applied.  Then the calendar opens up to the rest of campus.  Academic/Administrative departments and other student orgs who either missed out on the funding process (and need a reservation to qualify for the subsequent funding processes) or are wishing to add a new program. 

     

    Typically we only schedule one semester in advance due to our sharing 25Live with the registrar's office (who manages it).  As a result any org wishing to use an academic auditorium for a smaller program is required to wait until the registrar has completed the academic schedule for the following semester. 

     

    We do have an exception process for departments or organizations that need to bypass our scheduling process, for example our student theatre troupe needs have dates confirmed in order to contract the rights to the show they are wanting to perform.  The timeline for that predates our process so they are granted an exception and given a confirmation without going through our scheduling process. 

     

    I hope this helps, happy to answer any questions you may have!  Our Space Allocation process is currently live so I've included the link to it if you are interested.

     

    https://experience.syracuse.edu/student-centers/reservations/forms/space-allocation/

     

    Scott

     

     

    Scott Casanova '99
    (Pronouns: he/him/his)
    Associate Director
    Student Centers & Programming Services

    T 315.443.4458   F 315.443.4617
    srcasano@syr.edu

    124 Schine Student Center, 200 Waverly Ave., Syracuse, NY 13244
    scps.syr.edu

    Syracuse University

     






  • 4.  RE: Process/timelines/priorities for reservations

    Posted 04-25-2022 12:35
    Thanks for the info Scott!  We used to schedule a semester out many years ago, but it was not working for our campus.  I like that your space allocation is tied into SGA funding.  Not many of our student org reservations involve funding (i.e. regular meetings), so I'm not sure that would work well here, but I like the idea of it.  

    Thanks again.

    ------------------------------
    Stephanie Box
    Director, University Center
    Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi
    Corpus Christi TX
    ------------------------------